John Oliver Admits He Likes Donald Trump

Comedian John Oliver finally goes at Donald Trump, but Oliver admits the candidate has appeal. There’s even “a part” of him, Oliver admits, that “likes this guy” — though it’s a part of himself he hates, he says. Trump is dangerous, Oliver says, now that his campaign has grown large like a”back mole” that didn’t seem to be a problem when it was small. Oliver even gives Trump credit for mastering his own craft — comedy — saying of a Trump bit where he mocks Marco Rubio: “that’s objectively funny.”

Comparing the Trump candidacy to the lunch buffet at a strip club, or the NFL, Oliver says Trump is attractive — until you take a “closer look.” Oliver points out the Trump lies so confidently that when he himself was a target of one of Trump’s (more innocuous) fibs — about being invited onto Oliver’s show — Oliver called the experience “genuinely destabilizing.” Oliver says Trump is also not really so tough, but the assessment comes from a man who just admitted he was “genuinely destabilized” by Trump’s intimidating lies. Oliver, for all his trying, can’t seem to really dig in against Trump, mainly because Trump — as a comedian himself — is a tough act to follow. And because the part of Oliver that “kind of likes” Trump keeps showing. Oliver has too much love for the absurd to hide his Trump chuckles.